If you are worried that you may
have missed the much publicised lodgement deadline for individual Income Tax
Returns, worry no more….

That deadline of 31 October 2017
only applies if you lodge your own income tax return.

Etairos receives the tax agent
lodgement extension for the majority of our clients, meaning that lodgement is
required by 15 May 2018 for 2017 Income Tax returns, not 31 October (earlier
dates may apply for high value tax payers or late lodgers from the 2016 tax year).

Similarly, Business Activity
Statements (BAS) for the 30 September 2017 quarter were due 30 October 2017 if
self-lodging, but due 27 November 2017 if lodged through Etairos’ tax lodgement
program deferral.

As provided each year, the ATO in
recognition of the Christmas/Summer Holiday break and interruptions to normal
business automatically provide 8 weeks for all quarterly BAS for 31 December
2017, meaning that BAS will not be due before 26 February 2018.

Monthly BAS are always due on the
21st day of the next calendar month or the next business day if that
falls on a weekend or public holiday.

As with annual tax planning, some
simple planning can reduce or defer the GST payable each quarter. By example,
if you lodge BAS quarterly on a cash basis, and you have an invoice for commercial
rent payable that is due on 1st January 2018 for the month of
January, if that invoice was paid 31/12/17 instead of 1/1/18 (1 day early),
then the GST credit would fall into the December quarter instead of the March
quarter, so paying 1 day early brings forward that tax credit 90 days. Other
prepaid or paid accounts will have similar effect of bringing forward your
eligible tax credits so creates a cash flow advantage, but should only be done
if it does not affect ongoing cash flow.

No similar extensions are
provided for your Super Guarantee Payments (SGC) which are due 28 days after
each quarter end. The September 2017 quarter was due on 30 October 2017 and the
December 2017 quarter will be due 29 January 2018. SGC payments can be paid
more frequently (eg monthly) if that suits your cash flow planning/management
better, but quarterly is the legal minimum.

With only about 6 weeks to
Christmas and the likely shutdown for most, consideration needs to be made for
not only booking the Company Christmas Party and your own holidays, but also
arranging your business closedown period, employee leave, customer and supplier
closedown/holidays but also setting aside money to pay for employee leave and
ongoing overhead costs during the inevitable slowdown in business/trade and
your own cash flow.

“We are so happy to have found a dynamic business partner in Paul Simpson. We are moving forward with clarity and a sense of control and direction that we did not have under our previous arrangement. We look forward to working with Paul as an ongoing part of our business strategy. ” more testimonials